Jaguar Football Completes Second Practice of Spring
Head coach Joey Jones speaks to his team after their first scrimmage of preseason camp at St. Paul’s Episcopal School on Saturday, August 15, 2014.
The Jaguar football team held their second practice of spring drills on Wednesday in helmets and shorts at the Jaguar Practice Facility on campus.
The defense worked on takeaways and reviewed blitz packages. Special teams worked on punt coverage. A 20-minute stretch of team workouts had the offense running plays to move the ball against the defense facing normal down and distances. The first-team had three 5-play possessions while the second and third teams has two drives each.
Offensive coordinator Bryant Vincent singled out running back Xavier Johnson at the player of the day. Vincent thought that Johnson caught the ball well out of the backfield and showed great effort. He mentioned his reads and vision were both very good.
Defensive coordinator Travis Pearson singled out safety Roman Buchanan as the player of the day. Pearson mentioned that Buchanan makes good decisions quickly against the Jaguar offense, who moves very fast. Pearson also mentioned that Buchanan does a great job helping the players around him acting as an on-field coach.
Play of the day went to Hunter Vaughn connecting with Danny Woodson down the sideline with Woodson breaking free from his defender to go untouched after turning the corner.
Terrance Slaughter recorded the only takeaway for the defense with an interception on a deep pass during the second-teams first possession. Christian Persall had four catches with the third-team unit.
The football team will being donning shells on Friday and will continue to wear pads until Wednesday, April 8 when they are scheduled to be in helmets and shorts again in their final workout prior to the annual Red-Blue spring game.
Head coach Joey Jones was pleased again with the team’s second practice, “There was great tempo, the guys on both sides of the ball are getting lined up and paying attention to detail. We’re rotating a lot of guys in, we’re going three deep, and getting to look at everybody on film. I’m pleased overall. Obviously we’re not ready for a ball game yet, but I don’t expect us to be.”
Jones continued by talking about what the coaches are looking for with players only wearing helmets and shorts. “You can evaluate the skills players better when you’re not in pads. You can’t evaluate a lineman, and it’s hard to judge linebackers unless you’re looking at pass coverage. But with receivers and defensive backs, you can evaluate them because that’s what they do. There’s not a whole lot of collisions going on. But we can look at the skill guys and see what they can do outside.”
Jones talked about how practice changes when the players are in shells and pads. “It makes all the difference in the world because you find out who the real football players are. They can come out here in shorts and look real pretty, but until you hit somebody or take a hit you can’t play the game of football.”
The team will return to practice on Friday afternoon from 3-5pm on campus at the Jaguar Practice Facility. All spring practices are open to the public per USA’s release prior to spring practice began.